MARC has affirmed its financial institution (FI) rating of AAA to Small Medium Enterprise Development Bank Malaysia Berhad (SME Bank). The rating outlook is stable.The affirmed FI rating remains premised on SME Bank’s status as a wholly government-owned development financial institution (DFI) with a mandate to develop small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country. For executing this role, t...

MARC has affirmed the Republic of Korea’s (South Korea) foreign currency sovereign rating of AAA with a stable outlook, based on its national rating scale.  The AAA rating reflects several credit strengths, chief among which are economic resilience, prudent fiscal management and a strong external position. For example, South Korea has continued to generate current account surpluses, even in...

MARC has assigned a final rating of  to AAIS Evyap Sabun Malaysia Sdn Bhd’s (Evyap Malaysia) proposed RM500.0 million Sukuk Wakalah Programme with a stable outlook. Evyap Malaysia is a subsidiary of Turkey-based Evyap Group, a longstanding and a well-established personal care product manufacturer with a strong market presence in Turkey and Eastern Europe. It owns an...

MARC has affirmed its AAAIS rating on Gas District Cooling (Putrajaya) Sdn Bhd’s (GDC Putrajaya) RM300 million Al-Bai’ Bithaman Ajil Islamic Debt Securities (BaIDS) with a stable outlook. The current outstanding of RM50 million BaIDS is payable in December 2022.The rating incorporates a three-notch uplift for parental support from Putrajaya Holdings Berhad (PJH), which carries a rating of AAA/...

MARC has affirmed its AA- rating on Segi Astana Sdn Bhd’s RM415.0 million ASEAN Green Medium-Term Notes facility (MTN facility). The rating outlook, however, has been revised to negative from stable. The current outstanding under the rated facility is RM365 million.The outlook revision reflects MARC’s concern that the sharp decline in passenger traffic volume at Kuala Lumpur International Airp...

MARC has affirmed Sime Darby Plantation Berhad’s (SD Plantation) corporate credit rating at AAA with a stable outlook. Concurrently, the rating agency has affirmed its AAIS /Stable rating on SD Plantation’s Perpetual Subordinated Sukuk Programme (Perpetual Sukuk) of up to RM3.0 billion. SD Plantation’s sizeable, geographically-diversified and integrated palm oil operations remain k...

MARC has affirmed its rating of MARC-2IS on Titijaya Land Berhad’s (Titijaya) RM150 million Islamic Commercial Papers (ICP) Programme. The outstanding notes under the programme stood at RM70.0 million as at end-July 2020.The rating incorporates Titijaya’s track record in developing projects in and around mature housing areas to mitigate demand risk, and its moderate leverage and liquidity posi...

Global Markets     Yields on govvies from developed nations continued to fall in September amid a spike in COVID-19 infections, US election uncertainty and prolonged periods of low interest rates. Demand was also driven by: 1) the Fed’s pledge to maintain its FFR target range at 0.0% to 0.25%; 2) negative inflation in the euro zone; and 3) the BOE’s interest to explore negative ...

MARC has affirmed its rating of AA-IS on Penang Port Sdn Bhd’s (PPSB) Islamic Medium-Term Notes Issuance Programme of up to RM1.0 billion with a stable outlook. PPSB operates Penang Port under a long-term concession agreement expiring on December 31, 2041. The affirmed rating factors in our view that Penang Port would be able to weather the challenging trade environment stemming from the im...

MARC has assigned a preliminary rating of AA-IS to Sparks Energy 1 Sdn Bhd’s (Sparks Energy 1) proposed ASEAN Green Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) Sukuk Murabahah of up to RM220.0 million. The rating outlook is stable.Sparks Energy 1 is a special purpose vehicle incorporated to raise funding to develop a 30MWac solar power plant (SPP) in Kuala Muda, Kedah and another in Machang, Ke...